Fluid contact system



Oct. 31, 1961 YOSHIHARU SHIMOKAWA 3,006,622

FLUID CONTACT SYSTEM Filed Aug. 20, 1958 United States Patent 6 3,096,622 FLUID CONTACT SYSTEM Yoshiharn Shirnolrawa, Kawasaki-511i, Japan, assignor to Chiyoda Kalro Kensetsu Kabushiki Km'sha, Tokyo-to,

Japan, a corporation of Japan Filed Aug. 2t), 1958, Ser. No. 756,247 Claims priority, application Japan Aug. 26, 1957 3 Claims. (Cl. 261-79) Hitherto, the fluid contact system utilizing centrifugal force, for example the fluid contactor, in which several contact cylinders which are concentrically superimposed, each having a plurality of fine holes therearound, are rotated by any driving power so as to make two kinds of the fluids to be contacted the specific weights of which are different from each other flow countercurrently, respectively, from the center portion and peripheral portion, is well known.

This invention relates to an improvement of the fluid contact system of the type as described above.

An essential object of this invention is to provide a fluid contact system of the type as described above, which can carry out an eflfective fluid contact without necessitating any rotation of contact plates by my driving power.

Said object and other objects of the present invention have been attained by the system which comprises the contact plates, each having a rotational surface and inlet and outlet for two kinds of the fluids to be brought in contact, said surface having a plurality of fine slits, and said inlet and outlet being a tached in such a manner that said fluids are made to pass through said fine slits so as to be brought in counter contact each other by the centrifugal force generated by the rotation of the light fluid.

The novel features which are believed to be characteristics of the present invention are set forth with particularly in the appended claims, the present invention itself, however, both as to its construction and operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof, may best be understood by reference to the following description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which the same or similar members are indicated by the same references, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a front View of one embodiment of the present invention, in which several contact rings are concentrically arranged around a common horizontal axis.

FIG. 2 is a vertical sectional view of the embodiment in FIG. 1, taken along the line HII in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIGS. *1 and 2, the contactor comprises an outer chamber 1, contact rings 2, 3, 4 and 5 which are concentrically arranged around a horizontal axis in said chamber, each ring being provided with a plurality of fine pores which are perforated slantwise through said ring so as to be substantially tangent to the ring surface, an inlet pipe 5 for charging a fluid of low specific weight into the outer chamber 1 at its opening directed in tangent to the ring surface of said chamber, an inlet pipe 8 for a heavy fluid, and outlets 7 for the fluid of low specific weight. In the contactor in FIGS. 1 and 2, when a fluid of low specific weight, for example a gas is charged into the chamber 1 through the inlet pipe 6 so as to maintain the charged gas in the chamber at a velocity of about from 10 m. to 111. per second, the charged gas enters into the central portion of the chamber while being wheeled with a high velocity along the ring-shaped spaces between the adjacent rings and while passing successively through the tangential fine pores of the contact rings 5, 4, 3 and 2, and then is discharged out of the outlets 7. During said high speed movement of the gas, this gas comes in contact with the heavy fluid charged "ice from the inlet pipe 8, thus causing the wheeling of said heavy fluid.

Speaking as to the heavy fluid charged from the inlet pipe 8, this fluid flows out of the end opening 8a of said pipe 8 and then is rotated by the wheeling action of the fluid of low specific weight in the innermost contact ring 2. The thus rotated heavy fluid advances gradually and successively from the innermost portion in the ring 2 to the ring-shaped space between the rings 4 and 5 through the pores of the contact rings 2, 3 and 4, said movement being caused by the centrifugal force and gravitational force of said heavy fluid, and then discharged out of the outlet pipe 9. It may be possible to discharge said heavy fluid out of an outlet provided at the wall of the chamber 1.

The above-stated operation of the contactor in FIGS. 1 and 2 can be more efr'ectuated by providing nonporous zones 2a, 3a, 4a and 5a, respectively, on the surfaces of the contact rings 2, 3, 4 and 5 and by attaching guide pipes 12, 13 and 14 to the contact rings 2, 3 and 4 at said nonporous zones, each pipe opening in the concave portion of the adjacent ring and each of said nonporous zones being formed as band-shaped part having a suitable length. According to the above construction, at each nonporous zone, the heavy fluid is separated from the light fluid by the centrifugal force and discharged out of the opening of the guide pipe attached to this zone and so on at the other nonporous zones and at last is discharged out of the outermost outlet pipe 9.

Since the above-mentioned separation of two kinds of the fluids can be transiently achieved, the nonporous zones 2a, 3a, 4a and 5a are not indispensable, but it is preferable to provide them, the positions of said zones being usually staggered. The guide pipes 12, 13- and 14 may be formed as nozzle pipes or diffusers.

As described above, when two kinds of the fluids are brought in contact by utilizing the centrifugal force of the wheeling fluid so as to discharge the heavier fluid from inside to outside said centrifugal force may be increased by increasing the velocity of a fluid, for eX- ample gas, whereby the entrainment vvill be diminished.

The total area of the fine pores or slits of each contact cylinder may be selected so as to be 1-50% or more than 50% of the surface area of the said cylinder. Furthermore each concentric contact cylinder may extend axially farther than the adjacent surrounding cylinder.

Since the contactor of this invention includes no rotating portion, the contact element of any type can be used and the fluid can be led out from any tray through a by-pass. There has never been such a contactor as described above which utilizes the centrifugal force for the separation or reaction of a liquid and a gas. However, the contactor of this invention has the following advantages in comparison with the conventional rectification tower or absorption tower which utilizes merely the gravity.

(a) When the fluid is made to rotate at a high speed, a centrifugal force as much as 104009 times of the gravity occurs at the contact surface between two kinds of the fluids. In this case, fluid bubbling scarcely occurs and the fluids take infinitesimal states, whereby effective contact or reaction of the fluids will be attained.

(12) Since the fluids are made to rotate, the fluids are pushed to the contact element with a large force, whereby the heavy fluid is converted tosuch thin film as 0.1 rnm.-20 mm. and rotates together with the finely dispersed gas at a state of almost uniform film. In this processing, the film becomes thin more and more with the increase of the gas velocity and this film will be dispersed at last, so that the heavy fluid rotates in the wheeling state. The centrifugal force of the film or fog is brought in balance with the pressure of the gas outside the contact element, which results in ideal contact.

(c) On the other hand, the contact cylinders, each having a large opening area, can be adopted, whereby pressure drop can be reduced. For example, in the case of contact of Water and air, said pressure drop can be reduced within from 3 cm. to 10 cm. of Hg, and more sually from 3 cm. to 6 cm.

(d) The contact cylinders of this invention can be laterally arranged as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.

(e) The surface of the contact cylinders can be tapered by about /2- A to make the heavy fluid more or ascend along the diverging direction so as to attain a uniform contact. When a cylindrical contact plate is vertically arranged, the surface of the contact plate may be hyperbolic form. Such contact plates may be designed in many various types. For example, one or more porous plates, plates having many holes, metal nets and the like may be superimposed inside or outside of the main contact plate.

In embodying this invention, the tangential flow of the fluid may be modified so as to be a complicated mixed flow, whereby contact operation will be more improved. Furthermore, the sectional surface of the contact cylinder may be of circular or polygonal form, and also the contact plate or contact cylinder may be formed by superimposing successively plates so as to form tangential gaps between them. The fluid capable of being treated by the contactor of this invention may be not only gas and liquid but also their mixture gas or liquid containing solid particles, because the contactor can act as a cyclone. That is to say, the contact cylinder of this invention is nothing but a cyclone having a plurality of finely divided inlets. Accordingly, in the contactor'of this invention, a fluid and solid particles contained in said fluid the specific weights of which are different from each other can be separated by the centrifugal force by introducing said fluid from outside and by discharging them, respectively, out of the center portion and peripheral portion, so that the contactor of this invention can be used for the separation of a fluid from any solid particles. Even the solid particles such as micro powder of 30200 .t or alumina or silica particles of 3-4 mm. (diameter) can be brought in effective contact with a liquid by wheeling said particles or powder along the inside of the contact plate or contact cylinder in the form of a layer like the layer of a liquid. The contactor of this invention can be used as the reaction tower or direct cooling, or for carrying out the movement of the materials in any distillator, extractor or absorber.

I claim:

1. A counter-current fluid contacting device comprising a plurality of concentric cylinders, a tangential inlet to the outer of said cylinders for the admission of a light fluid in a circumferential direction, a center inlet to the innerof said cylinders for the admission of a heavy fluid, center outlets to said inner cylinder for exit of said light fluid, a tangential outlet from a cylinder intermediate said inner and outer cylinders for the exit of said heavy fluid, a plurality of tangential fine slits defined by and interconnecting said concentric cylinders, said slits slanted to cause the tangential flow of said light fluid from outer to inner cylinders in the same circumferential direction of flow and for the tangential passage outward or" heavy fluid urged by centrifugal force in the same circumferential direction as the flow of said light fluid.

2. A fluid mixing device as described in claim 1 characterized in that said concentric cylinders are interconnected in slit free zones by tangential guide pipes parallel to said tangential outlet for the exit of said heavy fluid, said pipes having their inner ends on a common radius of said concentric cylinders and their outer ends beyond the inner ends in the direction of fluid flow of the adjacent outer pipe said pipes being staggered'in height.

3. A fluid mixing device as described in claim 1 characterized in that each of said concentric cylinders extended axially farther than the adjacent surrounding cylinder.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,264,263 Brassert Apr. 30, 1918 2,496,281 Fisher Feb. 7, 1950 2,560,071 Bloomer July 10, 1951 2,560,072 Bloomer July 10, 1951 2,596,106 Schneible May 13, i952 2,732,909 Campbell Jan. 31, 1956 

